276 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



Killbuck. It is well known that the Indians are very 

 proud of warlike titles, and take pleasure in hearing 

 themselves called Colonels and Captains. The Colonel, 

 whom we found in a dirty and ragged shirt, had the 

 day before returned from a long hunt, and was now 

 refreshing himself with drink. He spoke a broken 

 English, and brought out with pride a few letters 

 written to him by his son and his daughter, both of 

 whom, at the expense of the Congress, are at Princeton 

 for their education. At the beginning of the war, 

 Colonel Killbuck, with a few families of his nation, 

 parted from the rest of his people, (who were gen- 

 erally on the side of the English), and betook himself 

 hither. Among all the Indians these were very nearly 

 the only ones who declared for the American party. 

 Their whigwhams were contrived, merely for summer, 

 of poles and the bark of trees ; they would build better, 

 they said, against the winter. There were about a 

 dozen huts. Their beds of bear-skins were spread on 

 the ground about the fire which in every case was burn- 

 ing in the middle. The flesh-pot is never taken from 

 the fire except to be emptied and again filled, for they 

 are always eating and are bound by no fixed times. 

 The walls of all the huts were hung with bones, corn- 

 stalks, and dried venison, which forms especially their 

 maintenance. One of their more important men was 

 Captain Whiteye ; who was strutting about wrapped in 

 a checkered blanket, with rings in his nose and his 

 ears, and sumptuously adorned with colored streaks 

 down his face ; for, along with one Montresor, a 

 quarter-blood Indian, he had this morning had an 

 audience with the commanding officer. General Irwin 

 had several times, and again today, given them to un- 



